Along the way, he encountered growling bears and breaching whales. He navigated shipping lanes congested with oil tankers and cruise ships. And he did it all by himself, in a 14-day trip paddling a homemade kayak.

Mench, a carpenter by trade, moved to Alaska from Colorado after a family rafting trip down the Copper River in 1999.

Charmed by the scenery, Mench vowed to return, and on his next trip north, Mench said he realized he had found a new home in Homer and decided to stay.

“When I came to Homer I knew this was it,” Mench said.

Mench took up paddling soon after, drawn by the pristine ocean waters of Kachemak Bay. He purchased a kayak kit from Pygmy Kayaking in Port Townsend, Wash., and after finishing his wooden boat he set out on an ambitious solo trip to Seward with little paddling experience.

“Maybe I was naive in the whole thing, but I just went for it,” he said.

After a successful trip to Seward, Mench spent the next five years working, paddling and dreaming of the second leg of his journey.

He formed his own construction company in order to give himself more free time, he said. And then spent 2005 researching the route from Seward to Cordova.

The trip started over Memorial Day weekend, and he rounded Cape Resurrection on day two. Fortunately for Mench, the weather was cooperating. But during a beach landing at the end of the day, he poked a couple of holes in his kayak on some rocks.

Mench travels light. He doesn’t carry firearms, radios or global positioning systems. He sticks to the Coast Guard minimum of a whistle, air horn, flares and signaling mirror for rescue situations if needed.

But the woodworker did bring along enough tools and epoxy needed to patch the boat.

Around Cape Fairfield on day three, however, the holes were still leaking, so he found a good camping beach to finish his repairs.

As he hauled the kayak above high tide, Mench noticed he had visitors of the furry kind.

Bear tracks of all sizes dotted the beach, and Mench set up his camp with an eye on the woods.

At 3 a.m. he woke to loud growls.

He blew his air horn twice and readied his bear spray. Looking out at the calm water he thought about launching his kayak. But Mench said he needed some sleep, so he stuck around, built a fire and slept near it until the morning.

He never saw the bear that had found his camp.

“I think we were mutually satisfied,” he said.

Back in the water the next morning, he made the tip of Latouche Island by that night.

The goal for the next day was to cross over to Montague Island.

Facing the biggest crossing of the trip so far — a four-mile paddle in the open waters of Montague Strait — Mench said he was bolstered by the majesty of the annual gray whale migration.

At one point, 15 whales passed his kayak at about 20 feet.

Safely on the leeward side of Montague Island, Mench paddled north among rafts of sea otters and deer on the beaches.

The weather continued to be excellent, with enough wind for Mench to utilize a small sail he carried with him as he ran the length of the large island to Montague Point.

Fuzzy Mench takes a picture of himself at camp on a beach in Prince William Sound.

As he set out for the day, the seas were mild. But the winds picked up as he paddled past Zaikof Point, he said.

An oil tanker headed to Valdez passed by and then a cruise ship. The seas were building and Mench was slowly losing ground to the wind.

Just then, a humpback breached less than 30 feet away.

“I could see his blow holes and smell him,” Mench said. “Seeing that whale really pumped me up,” he said.

The boost of adrenaline helped Mench get to the other side, he said. And from there he navigated the protected waters of Hinchinbrook Island, stopping to fish for halibut and enjoying the good weather.

He crossed through the canoe passage on Hawkins Island and began his crossing of Orca Passage on day 14.

The weather turned for the worse there, and it started raining and blowing.

“It was the strongest wind I had for the whole trip,” Mench said.

Dodging fishing boats in the fog, Mench made it to Cordova that night completing a journey that began six years before.

Mench said he plans on making other kayak trips around Prince William Sound in the future, but generally doesn’t talk much about his trips before they happen.

“I kind of follow a formula, T minus A equals Z,” he said. “Talk minus action equals zilch.”